Great start for Proton

 Proton Edar Sdn Bhd (PESB), along with 19 of its sales outlets and 21 of its service outlets, have achieved yet another milestone, being certified with ISO 9001:2008 by VCA (UK) and Sirim QAS Bhd.

The certification was in recognition of its services, which complied with ISO 9001:2008, a standard also practised by other leading automotive companies. The ISO 9001:2008 certificate of registration was presented by VCA Malaysia general manager Kazushi Arima to PESB chief executive officer Mohamad Shukor Ibrahim at a handing over ceremony recently. The ceremony was witnessed by Sirim Bhd senior general manager Dr Mohd Azman Idris and Proton director of group quality, Azmi Idris. Mohamad Shukor also handed over the certificate of registration to champions from PESB’s sales division, Kamsani Ahmad, and from customer retention division, Kumar Osman. In a statement yesterday, PESB said the immediate benefits of the certification are positive contribution towards its Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) and Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI). "By implementing a more standardised business operation and eliminating variance, consistency can be achieved as this are vital ingredients for continues improvement and process efficiency," it added. Standardisation in PESB business operations and processes is aimed at elevating customer’s confidence towards their product and services thus, strengthening the Proton brand and customer retention in an effort to increase the overall sales volume and improving the service quality level. The audit was carried out by VCA (UK) and Sirim in three stages – in PESB headquarters in May 2009, and random audits at 10 selected sales and service outlets in Sept last year and another six sales and service outlets in Jan this year. Mohamad Shukor attributed the ISO initiative to the "commitment, hard work and full cooperation of all involved staff". With the standardisation in place, Mohamad Shukor added that the company could continuously improve its quality culture through initiatives such as Kaizen Suggestion Scheme to inculcate individual continuous improvement mindset and Innovative Creative Circle to encourage structured problem solving techniques and team work. He said PESB’s future plan was for the certification to be extended to the rest of its outlets. Twenty six sales and service outlets are still pending certification.-thesundaily.com